"Honestly, it's more so like a city now." That is how Village of Catskill Board President Natasha Law described the village, pointing out that not many municipalities keep their own police department while the village of Catskill does exactly that. The village has roughly 4,000 residents, yet nearly 20,000 people move through it every day to work, shop, eat, and go to school, all packed into about two square miles.
That is a lot of infrastructure for a small footprint, and it is funded a specific way. If you are comparing two Catskill listings right now, one just inside the village boundary and one a few blocks outside it, you are looking at two different tax jurisdictions layered on top of the same school district and county. Most buyers do not find out which side of that line they are on until the first tax bill arrives. That is the friction worth understanding before you write an offer, not after.
Two Maps, One Address
Greene County's tax roll treats Village of Catskill parcels and Town of Catskill parcels outside the village as separate taxing entities, even though both share a mailing address of Catskill, NY. Every property pays county and school taxes. Beyond that, the paths split.
According to the Town of Catskill's published tax rate schedule (per $1,000 of assessed value): County 8.105257, Town Outside 7.213057, Town Inside 3.471417, Village 25.27, School Taxes 31.960142, and Library Taxes 1.481119. Add those up by jurisdiction and the picture looks like this:
| Taxing Layer | Town of Catskill (outside village) | Village of Catskill (inside village) |
|---|---|---|
| County | 8.105257 | 8.105257 |
| Town | 7.213057 | 3.471417 |
| Village | — | 25.27 |
| School | 31.960142 | 31.960142 |
| Library | 1.481119 | 1.481119 |
| Total per $1,000 assessed value | ≈48.76 | ≈70.29 |
The gap between the two columns, about 21.5 per $1,000 of assessed value, is the village tax layer showing up on top of a lower town-inside rate. That is not a rounding error. It is the price of the sidewalks, the streetlights, and the fact that the village runs its own police department rather than relying solely on the county sheriff.
A word of caution before you do this math on a specific house: assessed value in New York is not the same thing as market value. Greene County's equalization practices mean a home that just sold for $400,000 might carry a town-assessed value well below that figure. The rate table above is also the most recent full schedule the town has published, and municipal budgets are adopted annually, so the exact numbers move year to year. Treat this as the structure to ask about, not a bill to calculate yourself. Your agent or the Town of Catskill Assessor's office can pull the current assessed value and rate for any specific parcel before you get attached to it.
What the Village Rate Actually Buys
The 25.27 village rate is not just a higher number for the same services. Villages in New York are their own municipal corporations, which means Catskill's village government funds and runs departments that many nearby towns hand off to the county or leave to volunteer coverage:
- Its own police department
- Its own fire department
- Its own Department of Public Works, handling village streets, water, and sidewalks
That is the tradeoff a village-side buyer is paying for and a town-outside buyer is opting out of. Neither choice is right or wrong. It depends on whether you value walkable Main Street infrastructure enough to pay for it directly, or whether you would rather keep more of your monthly housing cost and rely on town and county-level services instead.
The New Wrinkle: A Tax That Only Applies Inside the Line
Here is where the boundary gets more interesting for anyone eyeing Catskill as a second home or a short-term rental. In October 2025, the Village Board of Trustees adopted a 4% occupancy tax on short-term rentals following a public hearing. The definition on the table before adoption covered anything a renter stays in for up to 90 days, including hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts, and homes booked through Airbnb or VRBO.
Villages cannot simply invent a new tax. Under New York law, villages cannot create their own taxes except for property taxes, so any new tax source requires a formal request to the state Legislature. To get there, the village petitioned the state Legislature through a Home Rule Request carried by Assemblymember Chris Tague and state Senator Michelle Hinchey. The request passed the Legislature on January 14, 2025, by a 47-13 vote and was signed by Governor Kathy Hochul on June 26, 2025, clearing the way for the village to hold its own local hearing and adopt the tax that October. Board President Natasha Law framed Catskill's move as a first for small municipalities, saying "our process could serve as a model" for other villages weighing the same step.
If you are running the numbers on an Airbnb or VRBO purchase, this matters in a very specific way. That 4% occupancy tax only applies inside the Village of Catskill's boundary. A short-term rental just outside the line, in the Town of Catskill, is not subject to this particular village charge. So the same friction that shows up in property tax now shows up again on the revenue side for anyone banking on nightly rental income. It is one more reason the map matters more than the mailing address.
Why the Median Price Headline Misses This
Anyone shopping Catskill listings online has already seen the topline numbers. As of August 2026, Catskill homes were listed at a median price of $452,000, with homes spending a median of 57 days on the market and price per square foot down about 2% compared to a year earlier. Looking at actual closed sales rather than list prices tells a slightly different story: over the three months ending May 2026, Catskill home prices were up 34.5% compared to the same period the prior year, with a median sale price of $350,000.
Those two figures, list price near $452,000 and trailing sale price near $350,000, are measuring different things and drawn from different windows, which is exactly the point. A median price, whether it is the asking number or the closed number, tells you nothing about which side of the village line a given property sits on, what municipal services come bundled with it, or whether it carries exposure to the new occupancy tax. Two houses can share a similar price tag and a similar square footage and still carry a materially different total cost of ownership once you add up taxes, services, and, for investment buyers, rental tax exposure.
How to Find Out Which Side You're On
The village boundary in Catskill is not always obvious from the street. Some blocks split it mid-lot. Before you fall for a listing photo, ask these questions:
- Is this parcel inside the Village of Catskill or in the Town of Catskill outside the village?
- What is the property's current assessed value, and which rate table applies to it?
- If you are considering short-term rental income, does the property fall inside the village boundary where the occupancy tax applies?
Your agent should be able to answer the first question immediately by checking the parcel against county GIS records. The second and third require a call to the Assessor's office, which is worth the ten minutes before you get emotionally invested in a specific address.
FAQ
Does buying outside the village mean I lose police and fire coverage? No. Properties in the Town of Catskill outside the village still receive fire protection and law enforcement coverage, typically through town fire districts and the Greene County Sheriff's Office, rather than the village's own departments. The difference is which agency responds and how that coverage is funded through your tax bill.
Will the short-term rental occupancy tax eventually apply outside the village too? Not automatically. The 4% occupancy tax is a Village of Catskill law, adopted in October 2025 after the village secured its own state Home Rule authorization. The Town of Catskill outside the village would need its own separate state authorization to adopt anything similar, and as of this writing it has not done so.
Where do I find the current tax rate for a specific Catskill listing? Start with the Town of Catskill Assessor's office, which maintains the parcel-level assessment roll and can confirm whether a specific address falls inside or outside the village line. Village-side properties will also appear on the Village of Catskill's own tax roll for the village-specific portion of the bill.
The Line Is Worth Asking About Before You Fall in Love With a House
None of this means one side of the village boundary is the better buy. It means the boundary is a real variable in your total cost of ownership, and it is one that a median price or a square footage number will never show you. If you are weighing a Catskill purchase and want the actual tax picture, assessed value, and village-versus-town breakdown for a specific address, Natasha Witka and the team at CENTURY 21 New West Properties can walk through it with you property by property. Request a Free Property Valuation and get the full picture before you make an offer, not after your first tax bill arrives.
